Microporous plastic filters – the first layer of filtration, this filter takes out massive amounts of tar from the smoke.

M.E. Johnston Jr/Philip Morris, Market potential of a health cigarette: Special report no. 248, June 1966:16, Truth Tobacco Documents Library, Bates No. 1000338663 The cigarette smoking public attaches great significance to visual examination of the filter material in filter tip cigarettes after smoking the cigarettes. A before and after smoking visual comparison is usually made and if the filter tip material, after smoking, is darkened, the tip is automatically judged to be effective. While the use of such colour change material would probably have little or no effect on the actual effectiveness of the filter tip material, the advertising and sales advantages are obvious.J.F. Thrasher, E.N. Abad-Vivero, C. Moodie, et al. Cigarette brands with flavour capsules in the filter: Trends in use and brand perceptions among smokers in the USA, Mexico and Australia, 2012–2014, Tobacco Control, 2016, 25(3):275, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2014-052064 Cigarettes look deceptively simple, consisting of paper tubes containing chopped up tobacco leaf, usually with a filter at the mouth end. In fact, they are highly engineered products, designed to deliver a steady dose of nicotine. Cigarette tobacco is blended from two main leaf varieties: yellowish ‘bright’, also known as Virginia where it was Frederic Beaudry (3 July 2019). "Are Cigarette Butts Biodegradable?". treehugger.com . Retrieved 31 August 2022. Are you using cigarette filters to improve your health? If so, why settle for substandard products that offer cheaper and inferior filtration? You could be unknowingly exposing yourself to harmful chemicals and wasting your money on something that won't truly benefit you.

In 2018, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) conducted a study on one hundred cigarettes for sale in the Netherlands using the WHO Intense method. The study found TNCO emissions between 2 and 3 times higher than the legally permitted maximum during real-life consumption, whereas the emissions of all cigarettes remained under the legal thresholds when measured with the ISO method. 35 40 41 An RIVM study recommended that a different, independent measurement method be used instead of the ISO method, rather than one “largely influenced by the tobacco industry”. 35 The WHO also recommends the extension of tobacco product sale regulation and tax policy to include single-use cigarette filters. 4 a b World Health Organization, Information sheet on WHO TobLabNet methods for measuring priority contents and emissions in tobacco and related products, 12 March 2020, available from WHO.int For indoor or outdoor smoke. Most filters are only suitable for one of these environments, so it’s important to buy the right filter depending on where you’re smoking. Consider buying two types of filters and rotate them between your indoor and outdoor cigarettes: a charcoal filter for when you’re inside (indoor smoke) and an electrostatic filter for when you’re outside (outdoor cigarette); P. Kennedy, Who made that cigarette filter? New York Times Magazine, 6 July 2012, accessed January 2021

Choose the Best Cigarette Filter

Lynn T. Kozlowski (1983), "Physical Indicators of Actual Tar and Nicotine Yields of Cigarettes", in John Grabowski; Catherine S. Bell (eds.), Measurement in the Analysis and Treatment of Smoking Behavior (PDF), NIDA Research Monograph, vol.48, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, pp.50–61, PMID 6443144, archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2016 , retrieved 29 March 2016 S. Fischer, K. Thümmler, B. Volkert, et al., Properties and applications of cellulose acetate, Macromolecular Symposia, 2008, 262(1):89-96, doi:10.1002/masy.200850210 M.V. Djordjevic, D.D. Stellman, E. Zang. Doses of nicotine and lung carcinogens delivered to cigarette smokers, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2000, 92(2):106-11 doi:10.1093/jnci/92.2.106 They also loved the fact that the filter helped with their smoking addiction. People noticed a reduced urge to smoke a cigarette after using the filter for a while. Plus, they also felt healthier with less bad breath. Erik Lassner; Wolf-Dieter Schubert; Eberhard Luderitz; Hans Uwe Wolf (2007), "Tungsten, Tungsten Alloys, and Tungsten Compounds", Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (7th ed.), Wiley, pp. 1–37, doi:10.1002/14356007.a27_229 https://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2F14356007.a27_229

R. Doll, A.B. Hill, Lung cancer and other causes of death in relation to smoking; a second report on the mortality of British doctors, British Medical Journal, 1956, 2(5001):1071-81, doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5001.1071 Yadav, Nisha; Hakkarainen, Minna (2021). "Degradable or not? Cellulose acetate as a model for complicated interplay between structure, environment and degradation". Chemosphere. 265: 128731. Bibcode: 2021Chmsp.265l8731Y. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128731. PMID 33127118. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Tanner reports grants from the American Cancer Institute during the conduct of the study; grants from Cook Medical, Exact Sciences, Olympus America, and Veracyte outside the submitted work; and consulting from Cook Medical, Exact Sciences, Biodesix, and Olympus America outside the submitted work. Dr Rojewski reports grants from the National Cancer Institute during the conduct of the study. Dr Toll reported personal fees from Pfizer and has consulted on an advisory board regarding e-cigarettes and has offered testimony on behalf of plaintiffs who filed litigation against tobacco companies. No other disclosures were reported.

During the act of smoking, plastic cellulose acetate fibers and tipping paper absorb a wide range of chemicals that are present in tobacco smoke. After cigarette butts are discarded, they can leach toxins including nicotine, arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals into the environment. [31] Smoked cigarette butts and cigarette tobacco in butts have been shown to be toxic to water organisms such as the marine topsmelt ( Atherinops affinis) and the freshwater fathead minnow ( Pimephales promelas). [32] Anti Tar is a brand of cigarette filters that's plastic. Most cigarettes have cellulose-based filters that barely filter out 30% of the tar in smoke. An Anti Tar 3rd gen plastic filter can prevent nasty tar in cigarette smoke from entering your lungs. R.J. O’Connor, M. Bansal-Travers, K.M. Cummings, et al. Filter presence and tipping paper color influence consumer perceptions of cigarettes, BMC Public Health, 2015, 15(1):1279, doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2643-z Cigarette butts are the most littered anthropogenic (man-made) waste item in the world. Approximately 5.6 trillion cigarettes are smoked every year worldwide. [25] Of these, it is estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become litter every year. [26] The plastic cellulose acetate in cigarette butts biodegrades gradually, passing through the stage of microplastics. [27] The breakdown of discarded cigarette butts is highly dependent upon environmental conditions. A 2021 review article cites an experiment where 45-50% of cellulose acetate mass was fully degraded to CO 2 after 55 days of controlled composting and another where negligible degradation took place after 12 weeks in pilot-scale compost. [28] [29] [30] E. Slaughter, R.M. Gersberg, K. Watanabe, et al. Toxicity of cigarette butts, and their chemical components, to marine and freshwater fish, Tobacco Control, 2011, 20:i25-i29, doi:10.1136/tc.2010.040170

Anthony J. Alberg; Jonathan M. Samet (2010), "Epidemiology of Lung Cancer", in Robert J. Mason; V. Courtney Broaddus; Thomas R. Martin; Talmadge E. King, Jr.; Dean E. Schraufnagel; John F. Murray; Jay A. Nadel (eds.), Murray and Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine, vol.1 (5thed.), Saunders, ISBN 978-1-4160-4710-0 a b Robert N. Proctor (2012). Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520270169.Cellulose acetate is made by esterifying bleached cotton or wood pulp with acetic acid. Of the three cellulose hydroxy groups available for esterification, between two and three are esterified by controlling the amount of acid (degree of substitution (DS) 2.35-2.55). The ester is spun into fibers and formed into bundles called filter tow. Flavors ( menthol), sweeteners, softeners ( triacetin), flame retardants ( sodium tungstate), breakable capsules releasing flavors on demand, and additives colouring the tobacco smoke [ citation needed] may be added to cigarette filters. [13] [14] The five largest manufactures of filter tow are Celanese and Eastman Chemicals in the United States, Cerdia in Germany, Daicel and Mitsubishi Rayon in Japan. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Methods for determining TNCO in tobacco smoke, factsheet, undated, accessed July2023